Girl Connection, October 2005

A monthly newsletter for Iowa Commission on the Status of Women

Department of Human Rights Division of Persons with Disabilities Annual Performance Plan Report, September 2005

This report is published in accordance with the Accountable Government Act to improve decision-making and increase accountability to stakeholders and citizens. This report contains performance information regarding our primary programs including, the Youth Leadership Forum, the College Leadership Forum, the State Access Grant and the Client Assistance Program. Major accomplishments this year include continuation of our core programs, a key role in the Iowa Great Places initiative and providing Cultural Competency training to governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Iowa Department of Corrections Annual Performance Report, 2004

Iowa Department of Corrections Annual Performance Report FY 2004

Inside Iowa's DOC, October 2004, Vol. 2, no. 2

Newsletter from the Department of Corrections

Inside Iowa's DOC, January 2005, Vol. 2, no. 3

Newsletter from the Department of Corrections

Inside Iowa's DOC, April 2005, Vol. 2, no. 4

Newsletter from the Department of Corrections

Inside Iowa's DOC, July 2005, Vol. 3, no. 1

Newsletter from the Department of Corrections

Iowa Department of Corrections Strategic Plan, 2005

Department of Corrections Strategic plan

Olmstead Plan, 2004

Department of Corrections Olmstead Plan

How Much “Safety” Is Available under the U.S. Proposal to the WTO?, November 2005

Critics of the U.S. proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) made in October 2005 are correct when they argue that adoption of the proposal would significantly reduce available support under the current farm program structure. Using historical prices and yields from 1980 to 2004, we estimate that loan rates would have to drop by 9 percent and target prices would have to drop by 10 percent in order to meet the proposed aggregate Amber Box and Blue Box limits. While this finding should cheer those who think that reform of U.S. farm programs is long overdue, it alarms those who want to maintain a strong safety net for U.S. agriculture. The dilemma of needing to reform farm programs while maintaining a strong safety net could be resolved by redesigning programs so that they target revenue rather than price. Building on a base of 70 percent Green Box income insurance, a program that provides a crop-specific revenue guarantee equal to 98 percent of the product of the current effective target price and expected county yield would fit into the proposed aggregate Amber and Blue Box limits. Payments would be triggered whenever the product of the season-average price and county average yield fell below this 98 percent revenue guarantee. Adding the proposed crop-specific constraints lowers the coverage level to 95 percent. Moving from programs that target price to ones that target revenue would eliminate the rationale for ad hoc disaster payments. Program payments would automatically arrive whenever significant crop losses or economic losses caused by low prices occurred. Also, much of the need for the complicated mechanism (the Standard Reinsurance Agreement) that transfers most risk of the U.S. crop insurance to the federal government would be eliminated because the federal government would directly assume the risk through farm programs. Changing the focus of federal farm programs from price targeting to revenue targeting would not be easy. Farmers have long relied on price supports and the knowledge that crop losses are often adequately covered by heavily subsidized crop insurance or by ad hoc disaster payments. Farmers and their leaders would only be willing to support a change to revenue targeting if they see that the current system is untenable in an era of tight federal budgets and WTO limits.

Government and the distribution of skills

Individuals' life chances in the future will very much depend on how we invest in our children now. An optimal human capital model would combine a high mean with minimal variance of skills. It is well-established that early childhood learning is key to adult success. The impact of social origins on child outcomes remains strong, and the new role of women poses additional challenges to our conventional nurturing approach to child development. This paper focuses on skill development in the early years, examining how we might best combine family inputs and public policy to invest optimally in our future human capital. I emphasize three issues: one, the uneven capacity of parents to invest in children; two, the impact of mothers' employment on child outcomes; and three, the potential benefits of early pre-school programmes. I conclude that mothers' intra-family bargaining power is decisive for family investments and that universal child care is key if our goal is to arrive at a strong mean with minimal variance.

Iowa Community Empowerment Newsletter, December 2005, Vol.6, no.6

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Health

Iowa Community Empowerment Newsletter, June 2001, Vol.2, no.3

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Health

Iowa Community Empowerment Newsletter, March 2003, Vol.4, no.2

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Health

Iowa Community Empowerment Newsletter, June 2005, Vol.6, no.3

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Health